Man About Taiwan: September 2006

Saturday, September 30

Kanas Lake Tour

Journey so far: .. Taiwan > Hong Kong > Beijing > Harbin > Yanji > Songjianghe >Changbai Mountain > Dandong > Dalian > Dandong > Chengde > Beijing > Datong > Hohhot > Huitengxile > Hohhot > Taiyuan > Zhengzhou > Xi'an > Lanzhou > Zhangye > Jiaugyuan > Jingtieshan > Jiaugyuan > Dunhuang > Urumuqi > Kanas Lake ....

Well from Dunhuang we took the night bus, uncomfortable as I'm too tall for the beds and forced to squash my legs and toes into cramp inducing positions, to Urumqi. Urumqi is a big, busy city, just like all the other cities, but this one has more Muslims and Arabic writing on signs.

The big, busy city

Nothing we want to see here, so a decision to go up north, close to the border with Russia and see the Kanas Lake, reputably beautiful and untouched. Untouched nature doesn't exist in China, considering the amount of people who want to see it, especially if it's on a tours itinerary!

We do the maths, independent travel to the Lake is too expensive. So it's the tour option, and thanks to an administrative error we get a Y100 discount. We first got quoted Y780 (52 pounds) per person from an outside operator, then our hostel quoted Y690 (46 pounds) and we finally got an unexpected Y640 (42 pounds)! Score! The conversion looks small, but we normally spend Y200 - Y250 a day. The tour was 4 days and 3 nights, covering well over 2500 km.

We drove from Urumqi, very early in the morning, to Buerjin town, just outside the lake. Nothing interesting there, stayed the night and got up early again. Went to the lake all day, took pictures, wandered, hiked, marvelled and felt wonderful.

This is the 'Sleeping Dragon' island which leads into the Lake.

The sun was out, clear blue sky but we needed our new '3-layer K2Summit jacket' in the icy wind!

The lake from above, we walked to the top of a mountain to take in the view

Spent the night just outside the lake, at the "mountain villa". Woke up early again to watch the sunrise. Unlike the previous day we got bad weather, so no show. Left for Hermu. A small village in the middle of nowhere. Not bad, but preferred the lake. Autumn did mean the trees leaves were a combination of deep orange, browns and gold with some green.

Hemu , stream with wood village

The trees looked very special

At 4:00pm we left Hemu for the long, tiring drive back to Buerjin. Once there we slept our last night very early in the morning left for Urumqi. Now we are back. We tried to sleep last night, but were woken up very early by some Chinese people, going to the lake.

Map showing Kanas Lake

P.S. I've had this blog waiting for a week because the great, or not so great, China firewall denied access to the blog.

MC

Wednesday, September 20

Dunhuang Vegas!

Night 1 - 16th September

Left Jiaugyuan in a minivan at 2:30pm on a hot and sweaty day. We started the journey on long, flat tarmacked roads, good. Then the road ended and we were forced to endure bumping, banging, jumping and crunching inside the van for hours! Kate felt sick, I felt numb and we both just held on waiting for the end. The end came and then it was long, flat tarmac again. We arrived after 7 hours driving at 9:30pm and we were immediately appalled and despaired at the gaudy flashing neon lights stuck over the reproduced "Chinese" style buildings!
Tourist-ville was waiting for us! Oh no! Even the centre monument wasn't safe from the neon spectacle.

Covered in flashing neon at night......

Anyway we found the "Five Rings Hotel" or in better English "Olympic Rings", strange name we thought but great price. 15Y (1 pound) per bed.

Dunhuang is on the edge of the dessert, so sand and heat is everywhere!

Day 1 - 17th September

The tallest cave, where the tall Buddha statue lives.

We saw the Mogao Grottoes, very famous in the world. The UNESCO listed the Mogao Grottoes on the World Heritage List in 1987. In fact most of the precious textiles, paintings and other priceless scrolls were lynched by the British, French and Russian. Leaving the Americans with nothing, so they went and nicked some carvings/reliefs on the wall!

However, the site has 492 caves, with 45,000 square meters of frescos, 2,415 painted statues and five wooden-structured caves! Coowee! And the
caves are really well preserved and look great even after 2,000 years.
Lovely day, even though it was in an arranged tour that everyone must go
on! Boo!

One of the views in the 2,000 year old caves, of unprecedented importance.

Day 2 - 18th September

Went on a mad tour of Dunhuang's surrounding area in a taxi, with our new Chinese friend. Over 200km to the furthest sight and 10 hours driving around. Wonderful to see EVERYTHING, but very tiring, especially as we left at 7:00am, yes, am!

Yumen Pass, an old pass in the dessert, part of the Great Wall and protected China's borders. 500,000 Chinese soldiers died here in the war. Nasty!

Day 3 - 19th September

We covertly walked up the side of a huge sand dune and watched the sun set as the wind blew sand over the edge of the dune, creating a beautiful scene at night. Then we ran for our lives as the dune police looked like they were coming to get us! We had sneaked in previous to the climb, everyone does and the guide recommends it, we were stopped and asked to bugger off, but we played dumb, so we carried on walking, making as if we want to get our bicycles! They saw us high on the dunes, silhouetted by the sun, everything was quiet for a time, but then we saw their movements towards us in vans far below and this gave us cause for concern!

We didn't feel like paying the Y200 fine, so we ran! I was screaming at Kate to keep up, with my feet sinking with every mad stride, at the bottom of the dune and out of breath we stealthily made our way to safety in the dark. Not before sitting down in the dark, dune behind us, eating our picnic of crackers and steam buns. Then the "Blair Witch"
noises started, the dessert is scary at night, and we started to hear voices. We got up slowly and quietly walked to the bicycles. As the dogs in the homes near-by smelt the fear of our bodies, they erupted with vicious barking and snarling. I imagined rabid hounds pulling at their leads salivating with hunger.

We got back in one piece, and made our way to the shower block to clean off the sand. No hot water, so a cold rub down was all we got that night!

Day 4 - 20th September

We wait for the overnight bus to Urumuqi. Not much to see here, but we are getting warm clothes for the next leg. Going up north to Altai, on the border with Khazakstan, I think.

MC

Thursday, September 14

Stranded in Jingtieshan

Taiwan > Hong Kong > Beijing > Harbin > Yanji > Songjianghe >Changbai Mountain > Dandong > Dalian > Dandong > Chengde > Beijing > Datong > Hohhot > Huitengxile > Hohhot > Taiyuan > Zhengzhou > Xi'an > Lanzhou > Zhangye > Jiaugyuan > Jingtieshan ...

Oh lordy! Here in China, its maddness. We are in the mountains in Jingtieshan, 90km north of Jiaugyuan, where we expected to see a glacier today, but the taxis were asking too much, WAY too much! Like 300 Yuan (for 30 min ride) and not 120Y. So we don't go. No biggey, we have plenty more chances to see mountains without being ripped off. Actually ended up being a lovely day at the foot of a mountain range, even though you can see parts of the local iron ore mine!

Anyway we missed the last train back to town (where we have a hotel room waiting!), as the train workers told us 5:30 pm last train, but actually 1:30pm (and we were sitting there when the train left eating lunch, making a day of it)!!! Grrrrrr.....
So stranded in the middle of dusty nowhere surrounded by beautiful mountains and dusty mining workers!

Eventually, after releasing the anger, we jumped on the dusty workers bus to find a place to stay for the night. This is poo as we have a place in Jiaugyuan that we've already paid for!

We are now in a small dusty site built for the dusty workers from the underground iron ore mine. It's cheap to sleep (Y15 / 1 pound per person) and eat (7Y for mutton noodles), but dirty and dusty. Dust everywhere, dust in my lungs and in my eyes.....oh the pain! It's at the foot of a mountain range so it's beautiful too. Got sunburnt sitting about all day and cut my hand throwing big rocks into the river while building a dam. I realise I'm still just a boy. Tomorrow we leave this dusty adventure, heading for Dunhuang.

Jingtieshan Train Station, where we sat all day!

Monday, September 11

Comprehensive Sick Boy

So I've been sick for the past 5 days. Wasn't sure what it was, but guessed I had a chest infection of sorts. Well I went to the local pharmacy and described my symptoms: chesty cough, thick phlegm, slight tightness in chest. All through TPR (Total Physical Response; Shane School's abbreviation to desribe the stupid looking body movements teachers make in front of the students to demonstrate language). They laughed and gave me some medicine.

I picked up some Chinese medicine for "Lung Cough", Azithromycin Granules and Sabutomol inhaler (Ventalin for asthma). Over the past days the symptoms have got better and I feel lively again! In China you can buy all the pescription drugs over the counter. Good, as I have easy access to cheap drugs, Bad, as I have to self diagnose myself!

Other drugs I looked at, and researched on the internet included Amoxicillin, Clindamycin Hydrochloride and Terbutaline Sulfate.

The most effective weapons available for treating bacterial lung infections are antibiotics.
However, viruses do not respond to antibiotic treatment, so the body's own defences are the main way of fighting virus infections.
Anti-viral drugs increasingly are becoming available, but at present are effective only against a few of the many kinds of viruses responsible for respiratory infections.

What was going on in my lungs!

Picture from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/

Conclusion:
Well I've read up on chest infections/bronchitis and discovered that the infection doesn't require medication in most cases and usually clears up with the help of rest, water and TLC.

More on this:
NHS Direct Online Health Encyclopaedia - Chest Infection

P.S. Kate thinks I'm very sad and wasting my time writing all of this and wishes to have no part in it! She has however been wonderful in helping me get better.

MC

Saturday, September 9

Getting to Zhangye, Gansu Province

Journey update: .. Taiwan > Hong Kong > Beijing > Harbin > Yanji > Songjianghe >Changbai Mountain > Dandong > Dalian > Dandong > Chengde > Beijing > Datong > Hohhot > Huitengxile > Hohhot > Taiyuan > Zhengzhou > Xi'an > Lanzhou > Zhangye ....

We took the overnight train from Xi'an, booked on hard-seats. Be prepared for a rough night! We wanted to upgrade to sleepers once we were on the train but that proved to be impossible, after I was man-handled by pushing crowds and men with stinking breath shouting "Mayo" at me. So instead of sleeping, we spent a long 10 hours sitting upright occasionally head flopping down when the tirdness kicked in too strong. Oh and an annoying child that liked to scream, well, screamed all night. Git.

Once in Lanzhou, we were hoping to get a train/bus ticket straight out of there. We got off the train at about 7:30am and made our way to the ticket office. That's where things started to unravel. We both were trying to get over bouts of diarrhea that seemably crept up out of nowhere and attacked during the night, and didn't have the energy to face the crowds in the queues for tickets. I had a few horrid moments, waiting for Kate to return from the toilet, when suddenly on more than one occasion, I'd get waves of diarrhea. Looking after the bags and a long distance from the toilet I actually considered dropping my trousers there and then and releasing in a plastic bag. Luckily I didn't have to , but it was too close!

After a futile 5 hours going to the bus stations, we came back to where we started and I managed to find two sleeper beds on a train to Zhangye for 9:30 next morning!

We spent the night in a crap, old hotel near the station and got to bed. The next day we got on the train and tried to settle down for another 10 hour ride.

A "birds eye view" of Zhangye with elevation, showing the Hexi Corridor

In Zhangye we found a cheap double room, Y40, and looked around town. Anciently named Ganzhou, Zhangye was a famous commercial port on the Silk Road and one of the biggest international trade markets in the country. The reason we came here was to start our journey along the silk road and to see China's largest reclining Buddha. We've been here 6 days now. I got to sneak in to the temple the other day for free (admission is ridiculously high for what there is to see - Y41) and was disappointed at the bloddy scaffolding and rennovations that haven't been touched and are covered in thick dust.

Inside the temple grounds, looking up

It was very relaxing though, for free it's OK. To ask for an entrance fee is greedy and unfair.

The Wooden Pagoda Temple was built in early 557-588 A.D. of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. The pagoda is actually a nine-storey building with a height of 32.8 meters (107.6 feet). Very exciting stuff!!

The Wooden Pagoda

Where we are, heading north-west towards Xinjiang Province

Now I'm sick, the weather I think. Got a chest infection. Not serious and I've bought some medicine and feel much better. So I hope tomorrow, if all is well, we'll try and look at the mountains. If not, we'll just relax some more and wonder around the lovely town. The people are so friendly and the prices are local prices! Wonderful times.

MC

Tuesday, September 5

Hyatt Regency, Xian

I'm now another year older, 27! Shit! Anyway enough bad news. The good news is that Kate and I both had a joint present thanks to our families. One unforgettable night in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Xi'an.

We arrived with our backpacks feeling a little smelly and unkempt. We checked in and then they took our bags! From here I felt lost, what's the protocol for this type of thing? We were taken to our room and I wondered "Do I call the bell-boy or do I wait?" The answer came as the bell-boy rang the bell and delivered the luggage.

The view from outside the hotel

The room was magic. Large space opened into the lounge area with queen bed. The TV had all the western channels and underneath the cabinet was a mini-bar stocked with drinks and snacks. The bathroom was roomy, with a telephone next to the "sit-down loo" (not the usual squat with flies).

We opted for a Regency Club room, which means that we paid a set price and got all the Club bonuses included in that. Regency Club guests have their own private lounge, unlimited soft drinks, complimentary cocktails and snacks in the evening and complimentary breakfast in the morning. Lovely. We also added to that a hot breakfast downstairs in the main cafe.

I also spent hours lounging and sweating in the spa, sauna and steam room. I was totally relaxed in the spa watching the TV sweating out the past two months of pollution, smoke and grime from our travels.

The central, public lounge where we ate fish and chips

The other bit round the back

Thanks to Mum, Dad, Val and Jerry

MC

Monday, September 4

Pictures from China

We've now burnt our China photo's onto CD. We had a chance to upload some of them onto my Flickr account before re-sizeing them in MSPaint! These are our favourites, which was very difficult as we have so many we really love. If we get enough feedback we might post some more here.

Otherwise our parents will have a copy of all the photos in a couple of months!

The first stop in Hong Kong from Taiwan. Here is the sunset at the harbour, followed by fireworks and a light show.

The still loved Mao Zedong looking down on Tian'annem Square, Beijing.

Bloody rain getting in my eyes on the Great Wall. Slippery fun.

Breath-taking Changbaishan, volcano crater lake.

The famous mullet man of Dandong, giving the singing a break while he downs more beer.

Inside the Imperial Summer Villa, Chengde, we watch the sunset.

The incredible Yungang Grottoes at Datong. Buddhas and the like were carved into the rock face, easy as its soft rock but hard to paint, so they stuck mud to it and painted that. Clever!